What is it in human nature that makes you crave precisely those things that you _know_ you shouldn't crave? Its like reverse psychology or something...
So, listen to this: the other day I took a day-off from work to finish my catch up packing (makes me wonder actually how a 2-bedroom apartment can even stock so much STUFF! but the stuff kept coming out and we kept packing!). I was in the midst of packing when it first happened:
Four sad looking over-ripe bananas were staring at me from over the fridge almost scolding me for letting them go to waste. I ignored their plea, see, I am quite fussy with bananas and won't eat an overripe one unless I am starving. A banana bread came to my mind, but I quickly stashed the thought in a deep furthermost inaccessible corner of my mind.
Few more boxes packed and its time to clean the fridge itself. Now a lone egg and a used stick of butter are staring from the egg basket, okay, now that's it, too many divine signs for me to make a banana bread. Look at the irony of the situation though: last time I baked a sweet bread was atleast 6 months ago and I never craved it until today when, as luck would have it, all my bakeware was packed as was the AP flour!
Afternoon arrived, and my craving for a banana bread and coffee kept increasing. Finally I gave in to the impulse, opened a couple of packed boxes until I found the one with my loaf pan. AP flour luckily was sitting on the top of a box. Quickly I packed everything back in, lest my husband should find out about my craziness! So as a result I ended up unpacking and repacking a couple of boxes, spending 15mins taking a photo.. but hey, atleast I enjoyed a warm bread slice with a nice hot cup of coffee which I so needed after a hard day's work :D
Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
5Tbsp unsalted melted butter
1 egg
1tsp baking soda
1tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1.5C all purpose flour
handful of chopped walnuts
1/2C sugar (this is just barely sweet, which is how I like it; otherwise increase sugar to 3/4C)
some quick cooking oats to sprinkle on top (optional)
some quick cooking oats to sprinkle on top (optional)
Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 360F.
Place the butter in microwave for 30sec or so to melt. Smash the bananas using a potato masher. Add the melted butter to the banana mixture and mix well.
Beat and egg and add it to the banana-butter mixture. Mix well.
Add sugar, salt, vanilla extract. Using a food processor chop the walnuts into smaller pieces (if using whole walnuts) and add the pieces to the mixture.
Add baking soda to the AP flour and mix with a spoon. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Stir till well combined.
Lightly grease a loaf pan with butter or cooking spray. Add the banana bread mixture to the loaf pan. Sprinkle some oats on top of the bread.
Bake for 1hour or until the toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.